The Republic of Chad is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is listed by Foreign Policy as one of the world's top 10 failed states. It borders ► Libya to the north, ► Sudan to the east, the ► Central African Republic to the south, ► Cameroon and ► Nigeria to the southwest, and ► Niger to the west. Due to its distance from the sea and its largely desert climate, the country is sometimes referred to as the "dead heart of Africa". In the north, it contains the Tibesti Mountains, the largest mountain chain in the Sahara desert.

History maps

This section holds a short summary of the history of the area of present-day Chad, illustrated with maps, including historical maps of former countries and empires that included present-day Chad. Present-day Chad is since the ninth century governed by Islamic states, like Kanem-Bornu in the twelfth and thirteenth century and Baguirmi and Ouddai in the sixteenth and seventeenth century.

France penetrates the region in 1891, establishing their authority through military expeditions primarily against the Muslim kingdoms. In 1900 it starts the formal annexation and in 1911 it declares the region pacified. Chad becomes part of the colony of Ubangui-Chari-Chad, from 1910 constituent part of French Equatorial Africa. The territory is divided into Ubangi-Chari and Chad in 1920: Chad becomes a seperate constituent part of French Equatorial Africa. Chad is granted the status of a French overseas territory in 1946 and when in 1958 French Equatorial Africa is dissolved, Chad gets autonomy as the Republic of Chad.

Chad becomes independent in 1960 as the Republic of Tchad. Neigbouring Libya claimes and occupies the Aozou Strip (blue) from 1976 to 1987.

Former divisions

Prefectures (1960-1999)

Satellite maps

Satellite map

Notes and references

General remarks:

The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons. The main page is therefore the portal to maps and cartography on Wikimedia. That page contains links to entries by country, continent and by topic as well as general notes and references.

Every entry has an introduction section in English. If other languages are native and/or official in an entity, introductions in other languages are added in separate sections. The text of the introduction(s) is based on the content of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. For sources of the introduction see therefore the Wikipedia entries linked to. The same goes for the texts in the history sections.

Historical maps are included in the continent, country and dependency entries.

The status of various entities is disputed. See the content for the entities concerned.

The maps of former countries that are more or less continued by a present-day country or had a territory included in only one or two countries are included in the atlas of the present-day country. For example the Ottoman Empire can be found in the Atlas of Turkey.